Veg Keema Balls/ Veg Kola Urundai/ Beet Balls/ Beet Falafel

                      Keema Balls/ Kola Urundai is always a non-vegetarian delicacy. But what will vegetarians do???

                   Usually veg keema balls is prepared with meal maker, but we have made this recipe with a super ingredient Beet root. Every women will have a dream to have beet coloured lips. I am not sure if your lips will turn in beet colour, but beet is surely good for our health. 

                 Beetroot lowers the risk of anaemia, promotes digestion, boosts immunity and much more benefits.

Cooking Time: 5-10 minutes

Preparation Time: 20-30 minutes

Soaking Time: 45-60 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup Beetroot Grated

1/2 tbsp Chilly Powder (can change as per taste)

1/2 tbsp Rice Flour

Salt as per taste

Oil for frying

For Grinding:

1 cup Channa Dal/ Bengal Gram (Clean and soak in water)

1 tbsp Mint Leaves

2-3 nos Green Chilly

1 inch sized Ginger

6-7 cloves of Garlic

2 tsp Fennel Seeds

2-3 sticks of Cinnamon

3 nos Cloves

Procedure:

1) First soak the Channa dal for 1 hour.

2) Meanwhile, we can make the other ingredients ready. Starting with Beetroot,         Peel the outer cover of beet and then grate it.

3) In a mixer jar, put all the ingredients mentioned in for grinding.

4) Now in a pan, put the grated beetroot and saute it, till the raw smell goes off.

5) Then, add the grinded paste along with the beetroot and saute it together.

6) Check for the spice and salt. If needed add a little chilly powder and salt as per your taste. Add the rice flour and mix it together.

7) After sauteing for 5 minutes, let the mixture cool down. Now, make small balls out of it.

8) Now in a kadai, pour some oil. After the oil heats up, put the beetroot balls and fry it in medium low flame.

9) Considering the color of the beetroot, the balls will turn dark so fast. Hence fry it in medium low flame.

10) Now the yummy beetroot balls is ready to be accompanied with your evening tea. Kids will surely love this delicacy.

Ragi Biscuits-Oven free/Ragi Adai Sweet/ Kelvaragu Inippu Rotti

                             Followed by the spicy version of ragi rotti, posting the sweet version of ragi rotti.

 

Milagu Poondu thakkali Rasam / Garlic Pepper and Tomato Soup Recipe

                              There is a popular saying in Tamil that, "உணவே மருந்து". Meaning the food we eat itself is a medicine. Rasam is the dish which is apt for the above saying. I remember my grandma making rasam almost all the days for lunch. I am fond of drinking the rasam, which my kid follows too:-)

                                     The Pepper, Cumin, Garlic, Tomato, Tamarind syrup, and the coriander leaves, will make wonders in ailing your digestion. Want to treat your cold and cough without seeking doctor, then having rasam for a week along with cooked rice will help you. This helps in relieving constipation and gastric problems also. The first baby food with rice will be mashed rasam rice in my native regions.

Ulutham Paruppu Kuzhambu/ Foods for puberty in girls/ Urad Dal Curry (Tirunelveli Special Recipe)

                               Opps! I am too lazy to cook today, but still I want to give my family a healthy food. It might be the mind voice of many homemakers and mothers, sometimes. Your search for easy, simple, quick yet too healthy dish will end up with uluntham paruppu kuzhambu/ urad dal gravy.

             This recipe may sound new to many and it belongs to Tirunelveli (down south district of Tamil Nadu,India) cuisine. It is same as the dal recipe we make using toor dal or moong dal. Urad dal has abundant nutrients in it; calcium, iron, folic acid, magnesium, potassium, etc,. It is highly  recommended for pregnant women and girls who attained their puberty. Urad dal can be taken in various forms like ulunthu kali , ulunthu kanji. and kuzhambu.                         

Prep Time 2-3 mins
Cooking Time 12-15 mins

Ingredients

1/2 cup Urad Dal (without skin)  
1 tsp Chilly Powder (or as per taste)
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
A pinch Asafoetida
As per Taste Salt


To grind
1 tbsp coconut grated
2 nos Green Chilly
2-3 nos Small Onion
1 tsp Cumin Seeds


To Temper
1 tbsp  Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tbsp Small onion Chopped
1 sprig of Curry Leaves



Procedure

1) Pressure cook the urad dal with turmeric and asafoetida added. It takes around 10 minutes.

2) Once the urad dal is pressure cooked, now we can temper it, using mustard seeds, chopped onions and curry leaves. 

3) Once the added onion for tempering has turned into brown colour, pour the cooked urad dal into it. 
4) Then coarsely grind the coconut along with onion and cumin seeds. Now add the coarsely grinded paste and salt to the urad dal mixture.

5) Allow it to boil for 10 minutes for the raw smell of coconut to go off.
6) Now you are done with the urad dal gravy.

                            Note:

• Even little amount of urad dal will yield more when cooked. So take the lesser amount than the normal amount (of dal you take) during cooking.
• Green chilly and chilly powder can be increased or reduced as per your taste.
• Need not be worried of the sticky texture of the gravy, it is it's property.

                        This gravy will be sticky, because of the mucinous of the urad dal. The mucinous property is good for diabetics and anti-cancerous too.
                        When taken along with hot steamed rice and ellu thuvaiyal, you will fall in love with this new dish.

Seem Paal / Junnu Paalu / Cow Colostrum Sweet Recipe

                      It has been a very long time, I am into the stream of blogging. Feeling glad to end my long interval with A Superfood Recipe. And the Super-food ingredient is cow's colostrum milk.
                     Colostrum is the fore milk produced by all the mammals after giving birth. This is considered to be the first gift of mother to her child. Packed with lots of antibodies and nutrients, is a low fat and high protein content milk. The cow version of colostrum is Bovine Colostrum.

                      This bovine colostrum is gaining popularity among the athletes and weightlifters. The high protein value is an asset to athletes. The abundance of amino acids in colostrum is considered to be a boon for weight lifters in making them stronger and bigger. Apart from sports and athletic persons, bovine colostrum is used for gastrointestinal benefits.

                     There are various methods of preparing the colostrum milk. Even little watery version is also being prepared in my native. This s a dry version. I have completely reduced the colostrum milk, adding jaggery and cardamom. And the shelf life for this dry version is four to five days, without refrigeration itself. For cold countries/climates the shelf life extends little more.

Prep Time 2-3 mins
Cooking Time 30-40 mins


Ingredients
5 cups Cow's Colostrum Milk/ Seem Paal/ Junnu Paal
1 cup Jaggery / Palm Jaggery (Crushed)
5-6 nos Cardamom (Crushed)

Procedure

1) The colostrum milk is yellow in colour. Shown in the picture below.

2) Crush the  palm jaggery or jaggery, add little water and heat it till it melts completely. Then filter for the impurities.

3) Pour the milk in a wide opened vessel. In medium flame, keep on stirring the milk. Within five minutes you can see the milk forming and then coagulating. By this time it looks like curdled milk.

Keep on stirring it with a ladle. When almost the whole content is reduced to half add the crushed cardamom.

4) When almost all the water is reduced, add the jaggery syrup. Keep on stirring. 

5) When the whole content is out of water, switch off the flame. Allow it to cool down completely and then transfer it to a container.  

                     Note:

• The foremilk or the first milk produced by cow after giving birth to calf is colostrum milk. Until nine days the cow will give colostrum milk.
• Even a very large quantity of milk, will yield to a very little output.
• Instead of palm jaggery / jaggery, sugar can also be added. Sugar is in least preference when compared to the other two.

                   Once when preparing this sweet recipe, I added a lot of jaggery. I had to rectify that mistake, so then added some grinded coconut, which became a new dish. Tasted similarly to theratti paal ( a famous tirunelveli recipe). Will post that recipe in the near soon.

                  

Apple, Ginger and Mint Juice - A cleansing juice.....

                            Running behind my kid with a little ginger juice is like running a marathon for me. I remember my amma(mother) giving me ginger juice at least once in a month, when I was a kid. I will just run out from my glass of ginger juice. But my sister will have this juice without any hesitation. When small, my sister was fond of all sour, bitter, astringent, pungent tasting food.

                          I gave a try of including ginger in apple juice. And my try didn't go waste. On the day of my trial I had some mint leaves. So included them also for the juice. The juice was more than the previous one.

                                 The ginger is a great cleanser/detox agent, with many anti-oxidants in it. Mint is another source of antioxidant, which also aids in digestion. Both ginger and mint, have much more benefits.

Prep time 15 mins

Cooking time Nil

Ingredients

1 glass Apple Juice

1 inch sized Ginger

1/4 cup Mint Leaves

1 tsp Honey (optional)

Procedure

1. Wash the ginger deskin and chop it. Wash the mint leaves.

2. Then in a blender, put the ginger and mint, blend it by adding a very little amount of water (so to extract juice).

3. Now strain the extracted juice and add with the apple juice. Add honey if needed.

4. You can top with ice cubes if needed.

                     Note:

• Instead of apple juice, you can use apple as a whole also. But should not strain. It becomes a smoothie.

                                       A healthy detox/ cleansing juice is ready. It will surely more than your normal apple juice.

Kadai Vegetable Sabzi/ Kadai vegetables Dry

                            Some two to three years back, when I was working we used to go out for lunch when our project gets completed successfully. In the same way, I along with some of my colleagues accompanied with some of our global partners. By that time I was very new to the company, so I was very quiet and didn't go for any choices in ordering the dishes. Just accepted that anything is fine for me. One of my colleague ordered this yummy Kadai Vegetables and from that day I am a very big fan of it.

                      I was very new to that dish by that time and so was very eagerly waiting for the dish. According to my imagination, I thought the dish would be served in a the Kadai and so the name. But it was not served so in that hotel and the tasty was really good. Having tried only veg kurmas, it was new to me and had some healthy quotient in it too.

Prep time 15 mins
Cooking time 20 mins                 
                       
Ingredients

1 Onion Chopped
1 Tomato Chopped
1 tsp Chilly Powder
1 tbsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Garam Masala Powder
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
As per Taste Salt
As needed Water

Vegetables for Kurma
1/4 cup Green Peas
1 Carrot
5-6 nos Beans
1/2 cup Cauliflower (Optional)
1 number Capsicum Green

To Dry Roast and Powder
2 tsp Coriander Seeds
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
2-3 nos Dried Chilies


For Ginger, Garlic and Chilly Paste
1 inch sized Ginger
6-7  nos Garlic Pods
1-2 nos Green Chilies


To Temper
1 tbsp Oil
1 inch sized Cinnamon
2 nos Cloves

For Garnishing
2 tbsp Coriander Leaves

Procedure

1. First dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds and dried chilies and powder it finely.
2. Then make the paste of ginger, garlic and green chilies.
3. In a Kadai in medium flame, put 1 tbsp oil followed by cinnamon and cloves. Add the dry roast and ground powder. Add chopped onion, after they become translucent, put the ginger, garlic and chilly paste. Saute well.  
4. Put all the vegetables chopped, except the tomato and capsicum. Allow it to cook in low heat. Sprinkle some water if needed.
5. Once the veges are cooked add all the powders, turmeric, chilly and coriander powder. After stirring them uniformly, add the chopped tomatoes and salt. Sprinkle water (if needed) for the veges to get cooked completely. 
6. After the water is completely absorbed, put the chopped capsicum. In low heat, cook for 4-5 minutes. Finally add the garam masala powder. Switch off the stove and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.

                           Note:

• Need not add tomatoes immediately after adding the onions.
• Adjusting the chilly powder according to your taste can be done.
• Too much adding of water will turn the whole mushy, so just add water by sprinkling.

                       Enjoy with rotis or chapattis.